Hey all, just joined the site. It looks great, I was very impressed. However, I did come on here to ask for some advice. I am 19 years old, which I know may seem extremely young to many here, but my issue exists nonetheless. I go to college out of state and am back home for the summer. Thus, I'm hanging with all my old high school friends, who I truly believe are still my best friends. I literally spend every moment I'm not working (and I work a 40 hour week) with them. One of my best friends, let's call him Mark, has been dating this girl since last summer, so it's now a relationship that has lasted over a year. We always hang out at his house and he's genuinely one of the nicest guys you could meet. His girlfriend, who we'll call Kelsey, sure seems that way too. She, however, has always seen something in me and I the same to her and there's just some sort of unspoken attraction between us.
Well, the other night, that unspoken attraction became vocal. It was a Friday and Mark had work early Saturday so he couldn't go out. Kelsey, however, came out with me and we went to a kid's house for a small party. We do this all the time, there were no intentions on my part. I was actually interested in one of Kelsey's friends who came with us. Nonetheless, I drank some and so did Kelsey, and we both ended up deciding to just stay the night at this kid's house as he said he had a spare bed. Once again, it was no big deal. Well, when we both get in bed, Kelsey gets real close to me and we're cuddling, which, as weird as it may sound, really wasn't weird for us and just felt natural. She started talking about how much she was attracted to me. I suppose the whole conversation could be summed up by two quotes by her. "It's taking every ounce of willpower I have not to climb on top of you right now," and "If you and Mark weren't best friends, I would leave Mark for you." This all hit me pretty hard because I always saw them as the perfect couple. In the end though, nothing happened and I thought I handled it well.
Fast forward a few days. Through these last few days, Kelsey has been texting and talking to me all day every day, which is unusual. Once again, we go out and party, but this time Mark is with us. I'm the designated driver and I let everybody crash at my house after. Well, it's a house rule that the girls have to sleep upstairs so I took Kelsey upstairs after taking about 8 shotss as soon as I got home (I was sick of being the only sober one). Kelsey drank some, but wasn't too bad. I take her up and say goodnight and she asks if I could stay for a little while. To save the dirty details, I slept with Kelsey. It was a horrible decision that I now regret, and I did not initiate anything. I'm pretty sure it never would have happened, or I wouldn't have let it happen if I weren't so interested in her and liked her so much.
She ended up not telling Mark and we've kept it a secret. When I talked to her the next day to make sure she's on the pill etc. she seemed almost solely concerned about how I felt about the situation and if I was still alright with her and had no hard feelings. I of course said I didn't. Now a week later, she still talks to me all the time and wants to hang out just me and her. i did so yesterday and it was sufficiently awkward, as she wanted to watch a movie in her house with me and her parents weren't there. No worries though, I kept my distance, which is one of the things that made it awkward. I guess after this whole story, my question is, should I stop hanging out with them altogether? I really don't want to lose Mark as a friend, but i really do like Kelsey. Or should I just stop hanging out with Kelsey alone? Do I need to talk to her about all of this? In general, I can't talk to my friends about this obviously, so I have taken refuge in the anonymity of the internet and implore your advice. Sorry for the long read, and I appreciate any input.